Thursday, March 27, 2008

The picture is by my creative friend Frank Selittoand taken from the stage we(The Bad Report Card featuring from left to right,Don Christiano, Yours Truly and Frank Selitto)just exited back in the mid-1980sat the Irondequoit Steak House in Rochester, NY.Don (on Bass and vocals), Frank (on guitar) and I (on keys and vocals)were backing up Dave Donnelly (along with drummer Dan Bonamie)playing Honky Tonk Soul for a regular weekend crowdused to us slipping from Merle Haggard to The Stray Catsto Johnny Rivers to Little Richard without missing a beat.

Dave & Frank are out there playing againas Dave Donnelly and the Donwannabes doing the same wild mixof Americana live around Rochester, NY, especially at The Flipside Bar & Grillewhere Jeff Riales (in the color shot above left) and Jed Curran (above center)hold their weekly Open Mike on Thursday nights staring at 9 PM.Dave Donnelly doesn't have a website yet, but I intend to do what I canto remedy that in the next few months.It's not like you can't see him...here he is above, againfrom one of Frank Selitto's great black & white images from back in the 1980s(not sure who the guy in the hat is!)Frank used to set his camera up on stage in front of the drums andtake pictures of the dancers in front of us while we were playingusing a bulb remote foot release.He has an amazing back catalog of images thatI hope I can feature here from time to time.He and I go back to 1972 and Disc World, the first record store I ever worked in.Frank, Don and I played together jamming quite a bit for a while.Then Frank started playing with Dave Donnelly back in the mid-1970sand sooner or later we all played with Dave.

Don Christiano (now the shaved-bald guy in the back center with sunglasses)is with HUNU? (who knew?) playing a bit more alternate mixof the same with refugees from the late lamented Colorblind James Experience.After he and I spent some time writing songs together in the mid-1990s,he began getting gigs playing guitar and bassbehind all these 'hot' chick singers in town(Maria Gillard, Lisa Bigwood and Tammy Brackett...more on them next time, I promise).Don's got a style all his own.He's the kind of guitar player who hasn't got a cluewhat he's going to play until he 's in the middle of doing it.Yeah, sometimes, he'll make a wrong turn, but not too often.Most of the time he plays something that just makes you beamor weep it's so beautiful.I miss having him play behind me and always look forward tothe Annual Bob Dylan Birthday Party that Hunu hosts(carrying on a 21+ year tradition startedby the Colorblind James Experience andcarried on by the surviving members that are in Hunu).It happens in May and I get to be the MC and sing a tune myself.I've even chosen which one it will be already this year (I'll tell you later.)

We've all benefitted from our association with The Dady Brothers,arguably the most sucessful Rochester area acoustic musicians.They specialize primarily in doing the Celtic (read Irish) thing,but their musical interests are SOOOO much wider and deeper than that(Beatles, Dylan & The Band, Country, Blues, Folk and so on).For years they ran an open mike that I frequented that was THE placein town to be seen and heard if you were a singer-songwriter or a hot instrumentalist.I spent a bunch of years playing with these guys andwatching them empower everybody who hit their stageat the many clubs they hosted in oh so many bars.Jeff & Jed are doing the best they can to recreatethe same kind of fertile musical playground the Dadys did.

Among the other regulars is my buddy, Steve Piper,who (along with Riales) lets me crash at his place wheneverI come up from Naples (an hour away down South of Rochester)to play at the open mike.He's about as crazy as they come and talented to boot.He and his wife Julie run a video business doing weddings andSteve also shoots pictures of a lot of us for CD covers these days (Curran, Dadys).He's in to a lot of the same music as the rest of us andholds a special place in my heart because he likes the Marx Brothers, too.I feed him CDs of Groucho, Homer & Jethro andother weird and obscure artists that I find.Steve has done time with the Dady Brothers when John broke a finger andwhen not playing as a solo, a duo with Maggie Herman,as part of the local singer-songwriter super-group The Crandelsis currently occupying the lead guitar chair of Watkins & The Rapiers,another local act of note. A busy guy, for sure.

Ever since I stopped working at a brick and mortar music store folks have asked me what I am listening to or what I suggest they might enjoy. This blog will do its level best to remedy that situationamongst the folks I know and with any luck will draw a new audienceto what I intend to be a regular forum for discussion andsharing information about my lifelong passion for music.

Starting in the mid-1970s I would make Mix Tapes on cassettes and pass them around. I wish I had kept a copy for reference andarchival purposes of every tape I made asprecious few have survived from my early collections. Since my last job ended ten years ago I have made digital vinyl transfers,copies of CDs and assembled CD compilations on my stand-alone Sony CDR-W33. After upgrading my computer in 2006 I began collecting MP3sand assembling MP3 compilations for my friends' edification and enjoyment.

My primary focus has been fellow musiciansin the Finger Lakes area of Upstate New York State[barring the occasionalmail out to friends living out of state]. I have been a player myself for more than 40 years andhave scads of musical contacts who range from students to amateur hobbyiststo weekend semi-pros and full-time professionals. Without exception (if they know me) I have come to bethe go-to guy for musical resources;i.e. influential archival recordings and attendant informationsuch as lyrics, publishing data, artwork, etc.

I have also had the opportunity to expand my reach over the yearsas a Radio, Club & Mobile DJ to inform and entertainthe 'unsuspecting' public of music they might not hear through 'normal' channels. My years on the turntables have given me a sixth sensewhen it comes to sequence and segue. This is most evident in many of my compilation mixes andas I move forward with this blog I will be preparing to offer pod castson a regular basis that I hope will continue this tradition. I already have quite a few mixes in reserve from the last two years andwhat mix tapes I can transfer from my past will also be considered for future posts.

As a writer and music critic I will be focusing on music that I love. That will be a daunting task for me as anyone who knows me will attest. I have owned well over 250,000 physical recordings in my lifetimewhich figured out to more than a million songs the one time I attempted to quantify it.

For the most part, my interests are firmly in Americana,which certainly is a wide and vague enough label to includeCountry, Folk, Blues, Rockabilly, Bluegrass, Cajun-Zydeco, Gospel, Celtic,Old Timey, Swing and Jazz. However, one can also expect to see me expound on Pop, Classic Rock,Progressive, Electronica, Hip-Hop, Mashups, Remixes, Reggae, New Age,Classical and what I would term Audio Archaeology.

I will definitely be shining the lighton many of my local music friends andintroducing them to a larger audience. There will be links to their sites and many other acts I consider worth while.

I will also attempt to keep a viable list of fellow bloggersI enjoy and links to many music related sites. In fact, I will be interested in seeing how long it is before outgrow this blog and have to consider spending the moneyfor a full blown website. I guess your interest will make all the difference. In the meantime I am happy to begin my committment with this first post. Please bookmark this should you find it informative and entertaining andI promise to keep the postings coming on a regular basis andbe a little less serious next time...oh, and begin the music postings, too!